What's your plan for Anibal Sanchez?

First, I don't want to detract from other threads, but I do mean to focus rather narrowly on the topic of what the Tigers planning for Anibal Sanchez as a free agent might me.

What are your ideas if Sanchez stays or goes?

I think the consensus of the board is to re-sign him (indeed, Dave Dombrowski has indicated that he does intend to try and get Sanchez back), but I think it's fair to say everybody has a different amount in terms of years and dollar amount that the Tigers would be willing to do to resign Sanchez.

The best as I can tell is like this:

PART 1:

We get Sanchez!

Option 1: sign Sanchez and then trade Porcello (off sets Sanchez's contract price with the savings on not having to pay for Porcello's contract) and move Smyly into the 5th spot.

OR

Option 2: Sign Sanchez and keep Porcello and than either make Smyly a swing man/middle reliever or send him back to AAA to get some innings as a starter...just in case....

PART 2

We don't get Sanchez back

The Tigers give Sanchez a "this is our best and final offer" in terms of dollars and years and a deadline to accept, and Sanchez respectfully through his agent conveys "no thanks".

Plan A: Get someone else along the lines of Sanchez

This is a bit difficult because you have to ask yourself are you ok with the risk of injury?

If your ok with a little (lol ok,...or a lot) of injury risk the list gets a bit more spicy; Shaun Marcum and Brandon McCarthy might be on your short list too.

Plan B: Don't do anything, Porcello is #4 starter, Smyly is #5 and the Tigers 2013 pitching rotation is set and the Tigers save a small fortune to fix another problem that will arise sooner than later.

Plan C: Take a flyer on a veteran pitcher instead.

Two names come to mind specifically and let me warn you, the names sound good but the numbers are not that great. Ryan Dempster and Roy Oswalt are two names that come to mind. Both got traded to Texas and both really didn't do anything to help their value by getting kicked around in Texas and both are coming off huge contracts. There is a possibility that they might go for a low ball one year "pillow contract" deal to try and get some value back. True, they could probably get that with any team but would you want to be seen as the savior of the Cleveland Indians or just the 4th (lol, or 5th) starter for the Detroit Tigers and actually play in front of 3 million fans again?

Plan D: Get a "innings eater" to get us through...

I really don't see this happening because I think even the Tigers would prefer to see Porcello or Smyly kicked around all year hoping they get better than try to get a player like Derek Lowe or Joe Blanton who will likely be just as bad or worse than Porcello or Smyly and cost much more too.....But it is still an option.

Thanks for reading and I cannot wait to hear the forums thoughts!

“Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a rock.” -Will Rogers

I think they will keep him since he pitched so well in the postseason and Illitch has a lot more money to throw around this offseason after making a deep playoff run and the Red Wings aren't playing. He might overpay for him but he will try like hell to keep him and he is the best option for this team to solidify the rotation.

Based on Knobler's Hunter signing story - as soon as the deal was done Illitch asked where they were at with Sanchez - I think there is a real shot that the Tigers sign him. 50-50 chance, let's say. If not, I don't see them bringing in another SP, unless a real bargain emerges.

Porcello and Smyly are good enough to win the division. If it becomes obvious they need to add another arm for the stretch/playoff run, it's something they can address in July, as they did with Fister and Sanchez.

Based on Knobler's Hunter signing story - as soon as the deal was done Illitch asked where they were at with Sanchez - I think there is a real shot that the Tigers sign him. 50-50 chance, let's say. If not, I don't see them bringing in another SP, unless a real bargain emerges.

I just read that now. Sounds like Illitch might be willing to bump the payroll some more and they might actually have a decent chance to sign him. Not sure that's a good idea though. Signing a less than elite pitcher (especially one with a shoulder injury history) long-term is generally not a great idea.

"Thirty for me, that's yesterday," Valverde said. "It doesn't matter how many saves I have right now. The goal right now is the Tigers in first place, try to win every day, go to the playoffs and win everything."

If it were me, I would offer him 3 years with a mutual option for a 4th. The money is ridiculous for all these players, so I'd look to limit the amount of years. Anything more ... bye-bye.

2015 AAT:Steven MoyaAll-Time AAT:Charlie Maxwell
If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball & saving an infant’s life, she'll choose to save the infant without even considering if there are men on base. ~ Dave Barry

I'd prefer we keep as many reasonable starters as possible, so if we sign Sanchez I'd like to keep both Porcello and Smyly. Let them battle it out for 5th starter/swing man with the understanding that someone is going to get hurt/miss starts and both will get plenty of opportunities this year.

If we don't sign Sanchez I'd like to see them sign a veteran or inning eater to give them more flexibility. I'd like them to get Brandon McCarthy as well but that has little to do with his expected performance and is mostly based on the fact that I follow him on twitter and think he's funny.

Slowsilver: They did a study at Baseball Prospectus and found out that bionic parts increase WARP23 by 6.7% on average. Back in the steroid era, steroids only increased WARP23 by 4.6%

MLBTR says the Royals have room for another multi year deal, backloaded. THey mention a Guthrie type though. Doubt they are in on Sanchez. I think whatever AL West team loses out on Greinke may go after him and maybe the Red Sox. There's always the chance of a sleeper team as well.

I hadn't realized this before, but Sanchez gained an entire MPH on his fastball in his time with the Tigers compared to with the Marlins. We also changed his pitch usage, dropping his usage of the fastball by about 7% and upping the usage of his slider and curveball. It's also striking how much better a pitcher he has become the last 2 years compared to earlier in his career. He used to struggle with walks and now he's turned himself into one of the better strike throwers in the league, while maintaining his K% and GB%. If the consensus is that he might continue on this upward trajectory, then he's going to be very hard to keep because he's already very good and there are a lot of pitch starved teams out there.

I think it will be very interesting the next few years to watch how the careers of Fister, Scherzer and Sanchez develop- even better if they are all Tigers the next year or two before the roster and salary crunch comes into play.

Yes, he showed what he could do once he got comfortable here in Detroit.
It seems like he would want to pitch here, even if it were for a little less money.
A team that should be a major contender, a very good offense and a stable organization.
Our IF defense may make us less desirable though, I see that as the only downside.

But talk about years and money. What would it take to sign him? Does he want a crazy number of years at 20+ million a year?
If so, I would let him walk and see if he could get it from another team. Boston has a bunch of money to spend but is it worth it to play on a team that's so dysfunctional?

The contract he gets, along with future SP, is going to affect Verlander's worth when his contract is up. That's assuming JV keeps putting up the numbers that he has for the last couple of years.
Verlander should be the highest paid pitcher on the Tigers (or in MLB) and if somehow we give Sanchez a contract that means more money per year than Justin, I would give JV a raise to ensure he's the highest paid Tiger pitcher.

Some of this slow process might be letting Sanchez and his agent get offers from other teams to see what his going price "really" is before the Tigers decide to give him his money. What bugs me is if Sanchez if a #4 starter making $15M per year, what should Fister or Scherzer be thinking of a few years down the road? It's still early in the process but I am starting to think looking for another pitcher not named Sanchez or just sticking with Porcello and Smyly might be the better option.

“Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a rock.” -Will Rogers

Some of this slow process might be letting Sanchez and his agent get offers from other teams to see what his going price "really" is before the Tigers decide to give him his money. What bugs me is if Sanchez if a #4 starter making $15M per year, what should Fister or Scherzer be thinking of a few years down the road? It's still early in the process but I am starting to think looking for another pitcher not named Sanchez or just sticking with Porcello and Smyly might be the better option.

He isn't a "4th starter"... He, Scherzer and Fister are all pretty much on the same level, just below Verlander. How they actually set up the rotation doesn't affect their value, or at least it shouldn't.

A few years down the road the other two will want to be paid what they're worth. A Sanchez deal probably isn't going to change that.

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